Chapter 1
Eyes in the water
Author's note: So finally, the next chapter of Fleur's adventure. I often though she was an underrated character. Here is my chance to correct that.
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Fleur sat on the boat with her fellow Beautbaton students. The boat would take them to the towers in the middle of the lake, where the second task would begin. Finally the second task had come, and Fleur was sure she was ready for anything that may come her way.
It was good she had been a quarter Velan, since her heritage had always fascinated her she had often done some research about Velanes. The reason was that has a child she often felt alone being the only not fully human student at Beautbaton, so she had often tried to learn the more she could about her heritage in order to feel proud of it. Her research had often led her to compare Velanes with other half human species, such has mermaids.
That's why when she opened her golden egg she immediately recognized that horrible shriek has the song of a mermaid, she instantly knew to put it underwater and listen to its message.
She suspected she had been the first to discover the egg's secret; the other three champions had no reason to know about mermaids, although she suspected they figured it out eventually.
The boat finally arrived at the central tower and she went to a private dressing room for the champions in the top of the tower. Harry, Cedric and Krum were already there. Fortunately there was a screen behind which she could change herself. She hid behind it and removed her Beautbaton uniform, and put on her silvery blue swimsuit.
She, and the other champions, then waited to be summoned. Finally a filthy little creepy man, whose name she remembered has being Mr. Filch, arrived.
"They are ready for you." He said with that creepy disgusting voice, which made Fleur think he was going to start spitting slugs on the floor. She remembered with humor that Cho Chang and the other Ravenclaws, had told her of a story where Ron Weasley, the little red haired boy who had asked her out to the ball, had once tried to curse Draco Malfoy, the slytherin´s seeker with a spitting slug curse, because apparently Malfoy had called one of his best friend Hermione Granger a mudblood, but the curse had backfired and hit Weasley, which spent several hours vomiting slugs.
Although she thought it was humorous she couldn't help but feel admiration for Weasley, he had come to his friend's defense when she needed him, a shame that Malfoy brat didn't get the blunt of the curse.
So far the Beautbatons had been always sitting at the Ravenclaws table, both groups had a lot in common. The Gryffindors were a bit too hot headed for their tastes, the hufflepuffs were alright, humble and hard working, has for the slytherin's they were a bunch of creepy little pests. Several of her fellow students had already complained about their repetitive advances on them, Fleur herself did have to put a few of them in their place herself. They were pretty vulgar, they had no concept of chivalry, and they were always scheming. For her Slytherins represented everything wrong with the British magical educational system, if you have a house full of mischievous individuals wouldn't it be better to expel them has soon has the Hogwarts sorting hat declared they were Slytherins? She was amazed how the professors tolerated the Slytherins to such a point they often got away with everything, especially because of that scary looking teacher Snape. Honestly in Beautbaton people like the slytherins would have been sent home on their first day, no wonder the British could never get anything done, if they were ready to always overlook such behavior from their students, and she heard they also tolerated this behavior in their own ministry of magic, boy were this people fools, plus what kind of sick psycho wants a snake has their house crest.
Finally she and the other champions descended to the lower level of the tower. She could see her swimsuit was causing several of the male student's tongs to wag, and that some of them whistled has soon has she passed them by.
She didn't mind the attention, she was used to it, she could however do without the ravenous looks the slytherins were throwing at her, especially when they looked at her uncovered legs.
They finally reached the lower level of the tower, near the water, they put themselves near the edge, each of them ready to jump.
The three headmasters appeared, and sat on a balcony overlooking the lake. Then professor Dumbledore rose and put his wand next to his throat and spoke with a voice so loud Fleur was sure he could be heard kilometers away.
"Welcome to the long awaited second task. Our four champions have performed bravely in their last test but now come a more difficult task."
"More difficult than fighting a dragon" Fleur though sarcastically.
"Something valuable, a treasure has been taken from each of the champions. Theses treasures have been hidden in the lake. Our four champions have one hour to search the lake for their respective treasures, afterwards they will be lost."
Fleur wondered what kind of treasure they could have taken from her.
Dumbledore turned to Filch. "Mr. Filch when you're ready."
Filch immediately fired the canon, signaling the start of the task. She, Viktor Krum and Cedric Digory immediately jumped. She felt the freezing water envelope her entire body, has she submerged herself.
She immediately took her wand out and used the bubble head charm, creating a bubble of air around her mouth. Satisfied she started swimming, although she turned when she heard a loud splash and saw Harry fall inside the water while he strangely started to change, his neck developed gills, and his hands and feet grew fins, it seemed painful, she wondered what kind of spell he used.
No matter she would figure it out later. She began swimming deeper and deeper until she reached the lake's floor.
Then she starting moving forward heading towards the center of the lake, it seemed the most logical place to put their treasures, since the lake was so vast that the headmasters surely couldn't expect them to search the whole lake with only one hour.
Thinking her reasoning was sound she moved forward. She could see the water was incredibly murky, there were so many aquatic plants around that it seemed to illuminate the water with some kind of green aura. It felt like she was swimming in a soup, so it was difficult to see. Especially since her bubble head charm, only allowed her to have hair in her mouth and nose, allowing her to swim without needing to come up for air, but however it did nothing to improve her vision. Human eyes just weren't made for underwater life, so her vision was blurred, at least it wasn't sea water.
Suddenly she saw a big shape coming up in front of her, heading towards her at full speed, at first she couldn't make out what it was but has it moved in closer she could see it more clearly and she had a shock of terror. It was a shark. A big shark, what was a shark doing in a sweet water lake in Britain? No matter she raised her wand and whispered petrificus totalus, and her wand shot a beam of light, whish grazed the shark, but did not hit him.
The shark then suddenly stopped and put its hands up. Wait, what? A shark with hands, and they were human hands. Has she looked closer she noticed the shark actually had the whole body of a human, by which appearance and swimming shorts appeared to be Krum. He had apparently tried to turn himself into a shark but had managed to get only halfway there.
She lowered her wand and made an apologetic gesture. Krum swam away in the opposite direction, and she continued to swim forward.
After 20 minutes she arrived in a forest of large algae, so large they may have been trees. She began swimming through them, but she soon regretted it. The algae were so thick she could barely see the way ahead, and the algae kept wrapping itself around her body and limbs, so she often she had to stop to untangle herself.
Plus there was something else, when she turned once, by instinct she though she saw something move in the algae, like if there was something hiding in it, almost has if something was following her. She though it might be the lake's giant squid, fortunately she had prepared for it in case it tried to grab her.
She continued moving forward when she felt vibrations in the water, like of something swimming next to her. Nervous she slowly turned to see if there was something behind her, or in either side of her but couldn't see anything.
Relieved she was about to continue on her route, when she suddenly felt a powerful scaly hand grab her feet and pull her down. She let out a small scream which was muffled by the water, she kept being pulled down, then her attacker put let go of her feet and put his left arm around her naked legs, she could feel scales in his arms rubbing against the bare skin of her legs, like if she was being bound by a powerful metal chain. Desperately tried use her arms to swim upwards, but her attacker's arms kept a steady grip on her legs. She then pointed her arm down to where she hoped the creatures face would be, but before she could utter any words, the creature used his right arm to grab her's and slightly twist it to the point she was forced to let go of her wand which disappeared in the depths of the lake.
Having disarmed he's prey, the creature let go of her arm, used his left grabbing her legs to pull her further down, den when her belly was on the same level than he's face the creature put his right arm around her waist and lowered her unto his right shoulder. Fleur tried desperately to free herself but the creature's right arm was holding by the waist, his hand holding her bare back pressing against her skin, against his shoulder and her legs were surrounded by he's left arm, whose hand was grabbing firmly her left leg.
She didn't like the feeling of those scaly hands on her legs, and even less on her back. She squirmed she stuggled to no avail, her legs were held firmly by the arm, and when she tried to punch the creature she couldn't hit his face since the creature was holding her on his shoulder, so she was facing backwards so she could only see the creatures back. And when she did manage to get a hit the creature ignored.
The creature then started to walk underwater, carrying her over his shoulder like if she was just some sort of potato bag.
Fleur continued to struggle, and she continued screaming in the hopes one of the champions might hear her and come to her rescue.
The creature suddenly stopped, having probably realized what his catch of the day was trying to do. He let go of her legs, she immediately started kicking him with them and tried to swim away, but the creature's grip on her waist just tightened, so she couldn't unfree herself.
The creature began using the claws of its now free left hand to cut the algae around him into several small pieces. It was really curious, but Fleur didn't care she just wanted to get away from this monster and never feel he's scaly hands on her ever again.
The creature stopped a few minutes later, having apparently finished its task with the algae.
He den lowered her from his shoulder and let go of her. Fleur immediately tried to swim away to the surface but the creature quickly grabbed her legs and pulled her down towards the lake floor. He then pushed her to the point she was lying face down on the floor.
The creature then took one of the algae it had cut, then grabbed both her arms and crossed them with each other behind her back. He then started putting the algae around her fists. Fleur suddenly understood was he was doing, he was tying her up like some prized catch.
Fleur started to struggle but it was useless, the creature was holding her arms. And when it finally let go of her she tried to move her hands she couldn't the bounds were too strong, she desperately tried to swim with only her legs but once again he captor grabbed them. He took another piece of algae and proceeded to tie up her feet. Once it was done the creature let go of her completely, knowing she wouldn't escape now. Fleur tried desperately to move, but both her hands and feet were tightly held by the algae, she couldn't even swim. She just lay there completely at the mercy of her kidnapper.
She desperately tried to scream, hoping someone would hear her, despite the water. But turns out her abductor wasn't done yet. He took the final piece of algae and put it above her mouth and around her head were it was tied up. She was now bound and gagged, all she could do was make a low moan when she tried to call for help.
The creature then grabbed Fleur once again and put her back into his right shoulder, and put his left arm back around her legs and continued to march, but this time Fleur couldn't struggle, she couldn't even scream has the creature touched her and carried with impunity. Fleur never felt so powerless she was held and bound so tightly she no longer had the strength to even move shake her body in defiance. She was completely at the mercy of her captor, subject to his every whim, he could whatever he wanted with her and she couldn't do a thing to resist.
The creature marched on carrying his prize proudly. Until finally they arrived towards what appeared to a great tree trunk on the edge of a underwater cliff.
The creature set Fleur down, who couldn't do anything but watch as the creature removed the tree trunk from the way, with an amazement strength, Fleur understood how he had overpowered her so easily, to reveal the entrance of an underwater tunnel.
The creature returned to Fleur and picked her right up back into his shoulder, and took her inside the aquatic tunnel. He then proceeded to block the entrance with the tree trunk. Then he marched forward further into the tunnel. Fleur was wondering where the creature was taking her and what did it plan to do with her. When suddenly, the bubble surrounding her mouth and nose disappeared. The head bubble charm had dissipated, and she was now lacking hair. She desperately tried to struggle, but her bonds and the creatures arms held her secure in place. She tried a last final call for help, but it was muffled by her algae gag.
And has she felt her lungs crying out for hair, she slowly slept into unconsciousness.
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Gillman was satisfied. He had managed to grab the silvery golden haired human beauty without a any real problem. She had struggled but he had managed to easily overpower her. And now he was carrying her back to his cave, where she would remain for has long has he liked.
She had stopped moving a few minutes, apparently having given up on trying to free herself from him, but then suddenly she started to struggle again with such energy Gillman was surprised, and had to quickly reinforce his grip on her legs and waist, she apparently hadn't given up yet, she then slowly went still.
Strange so far she didn't give up so easily. Curious Gillman turned around and saw the bubble around her mouth and nose had disappeared. Now he understood why she had acted like that, she was suffocationg.
He quickly started swimming has fast has he could, carrying the unconscious human with him. Gillman was starting to despair when he finally saw the entrance of the cave. He quickly swam towards it and emerged out of the water into the underground cave, he quickly dragged the human out of the water into the air, and quickly removed the gag from her mouth so she could breathe.
To his relief she started coughing out water from her mouth, and started breathing normally, although she remained unconscious.
Gillman grabbed her waist with his right arm and her legs with his left and raised into his arms has he carried even deeper into the cave, her new home, where she would stay with him forever. He finally reached a comfortable looking rock were he gently laid her on top of it.
She lay there motionless and peacefully sleeping, and Gillman knew that he finally wasn't alone anymore. He had her, she was his, she was his and no one elses.
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Author's note: So hope you liked the chapter. Please tell me how would you want Fleur's relationship with the Gillman. And how will the rest of the school react to the disappearance of a triwizard champion. Please review and give me your thoughts and ideas, they often inspire me new ones and help continue this story.